The “ad Statuas” Observatory meteorological equipment is made up of a main unit, called ISS (Integrated Sensor Suite), installed on the roof and of an additional emplacement located in the garden.
The equipment is made by the American company Davis Instruments. The sensors can measure:
- temperature and air humidity, through a temperature and humidity sensor, installed inside a radiation shield which is fanned during the day;
- atmospheric pressure;
- wind speed and direction;
- the rainfall amount and its intensity per hour;
- solar radiation.
- UV radiation
By analysing those measurements, through a software, one may calculate many other values, such as the “Wind Chill”, the cooling index, namely the perceived temperature in case of wind
The main weather station, a Davis Vantage Pro2 Plus, has all the above mentioned measurements and considering how high the anemometer is installed (10 m above street level), it can guarantee very precise measurements of the wind speed and direction.
In order to measure also temperature in a more accurate way, as per the World Meteorological Organization (WMO) directives, an additional emplacement has been installed in the garden. Through a stainless steel temperature probe placed inside a 24-hour fan aspirated radiation shield, it measures temperature at a height of 1.8 m above the grass level. This additional emplacement also has a Hellmann manual rain gauge for more reliable pluviometrical data and a manual read out snow gauge to measure snow fall.
With two measurement emplacements it is possible to have a weather station in line with the WMO directives regarding both urban and suburban installations, although it is actually located in a residential area.
The measurements carried out are sampled by the respective emplacements and every 2.5 seconds they are transmitted wireless to an internal Console. This stores the data and through a data logger IP it transfers them to a PC which processes and uploads them online.
The whole weather station is powered by solar panels during the day and by a battery backup during the night.